


Birthday Epiphanies

by towokuwusatsuwu



Category: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
Genre: Birthday Fluff, Communication, Healthy Relationships, Implied Mpreg, Multi, Polyamory, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-07
Updated: 2017-06-07
Packaged: 2018-11-10 01:04:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11116653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/towokuwusatsuwu/pseuds/towokuwusatsuwu
Summary: Taiga does not want a party, nor presents, nor cake. He gets cake, against his will, and the reminder that the two men in his life are perfect for him.





	Birthday Epiphanies

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dialecstatic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dialecstatic/gifts).



Taiga Hanaya is used to being awoken by his daughter crawling on top of him and demanding his attention, having grown tired of waiting for him to wake up and having grown bored with her two conscious and awake fathers. This morning, oddly enough, does not follow the typical pattern.

Instead, Taiga opens his eyes to find the bed empty as it always with, the interior of the room strangely peaceful, pale gray shadows dancing along the wall as a cool spring breeze stirs the curtains. He scrubs the sleep from his eyes and rolls over so he can see the digital clock set on the nightstand, surprised to see the time well past noon. To think Nico has gone all day without waltzing into his room to demand his attention is a miracle in and of itself.

He could lie in bed, make the most of this rare moment of peace, but the emptiness of the vast bed is enough to stir him, make him roll out of the sleep-warm sheets to stretch the muscles in his back and shoulders. The closet, as always, is difficult to navigate. Hiiro had proposed dividing the rod so their clothes would not be mixed and matched together so much, but Dan had denounced the idea quickly with a pout, puppy eyes, and the reminder he would just as quickly stop sorting clothing and only mess everything up once again.

After having flipped through Hiiro’s pressed button-ups and Dan’s casual t-shirts and suits, he finds a t-shirt of his own and pulls it on over his head. A glance in the mirror in the bathroom shows him how tousled his hair is, but he doesn’t care enough to brush it.

When he finally walks downstairs in search of his husbands and his daughter, the house is too quiet and too peaceful. His brows furrow as he tries to rack his brain to remember if Nico had a play date scheduled today, but he can’t remember. Dan is the more charismatic of the three of them, so he handles their daughter’s social life.

But Hiiro and Dan are easy to find; the two of them are sitting at the kitchen table together, Dan with the newspaper spread out before him, taking up an obnoxious amount of room while Hiiro flips through one of the many medical journals that arrive in the mail each morning. Taiga gives both of them a nod when they look up at him, shuffling toward the coffee pot and the promise of hot, fresh caffeine. He can feel eyes on his back as he goes and he rolls his own in response— he’ll brush his hair if they have to go out or have company— but he isn’t expecting Hiiro’s arms to snake around his waist from behind, warm lips pressing a kiss to the back of his neck just as he curls his fingers around the coffee pot handle. They’re both lucky he didn’t have it in his hands; he might have spilled it all over both of them and scalding hot coffee leaving red burns on his skin is not the way Taiga aims to start any morning— or in this case, afternoon.

“You were asleep so late I was starting to wonder if we’d have to come kiss you awake like Sleeping Beauty,” Hiiro informs him, and Taiga only grunts in answer as he pours himself a mug of coffee, wrapping his hands around the ceramic, letting its quickly heating surface warm his skin. “Nico left early this morning but Dan came back to bed after he saw her off, but we still got out of bed before you did. You need to start coming to bed earlier.”

Taiga cocks his head at the words, turning to face Hiiro slowly, careful not to jostle his mug of coffee and risk spilling on either of them. “Nico isn’t here?” He doesn’t remember her having anything scheduled for the day, and since when does Nico get up early enough for Hiiro to consider it early? “I didn’t realize she was going somewhere this morning. Who has her? You didn’t say anything about this to me, I don’t think.”

“It was a surprise, husband. Come and sit down.” Dan kicks one of the chairs out from under the edge of the table with his foot, patting the cushioned seat. “Emu came by this morning to pick her up and she’s having a sleepover with Graphite. Parad bought him our latest game and Nico demanded to come over and play it right away.”

“That’s still one of the most atrocious names I’ve ever heard given to a child, you know. Emu and Kiriya should have fought Parad on that one, I don’t care if he did carry the kid.” Taiga sets his coffee down purposefully on top of Dan’s newspaper, which would be difficult to avoid anyway, before dropping down in his usual chair, sighing audibly.

Dan cocks an eyebrow at him. “Would you have fought me on naming our beautiful daughter?”

The memory of Dan nearly crushing his hand in the delivery room flashes before Taiga’s eyes. “Nico isn’t a horrible name for a kid. Anyway, why the surprise?”

“It’s your birthday, and we thought you might like spending it quietly at home instead of having to keep up with Nico all day long.” Hiiro sends him a knowing smile as he takes his own seat. “I know you love her but I also know she can knock you on your ass without trying.”

“If someone would stop giving her candy—” Taiga argues.

“She loves candy and as long as she’s good and she keeps her teeth brushed, she’s allowed to have what she wants. Most of it is sugarless anyway. She’s not old enough to know that.” Dan primply folds up his newspaper, lifting Taiga’s cup to retrieve the final page of it.

Taiga sighs at him. “Why are we doing anything for my birthday? I said I didn’t want to.”

“It’s because you said that,” Hiiro says. “We’ve ignored it for the last four years.”

This is true, but only because Taiga has asked them to do their best to ignore his birthday. The event itself is one he doesn’t consider worth commemorating, and at his age, the last thing he wants is a reminder that he’s only getting older. Keeping up with Nico has been a lasting reminder even if he does enjoy trying to keep up with her, to play at her pace instead of his own. He still remembers Hiiro and Dan worrying about how he would take to having to care for a child given his relative aversion to children in general, but Nico is arguably the best thing to have ever happened to him, and he loves her with every single molecule of his heart.

“You always tell us to ignore your birthday,” Dan says, heading for the refrigerator.

Taiga eyes the small white box he brings back to the table, biting down on his lower lip when Dan carefully extracts the small square of frosted cake layered with sliced fruit. “You got a cake?”

“Fully his idea, not mine,” Hiiro adds as he, too, stands to retrieve a stack of plates.

“I wanted to do something special for you, but you don’t like grand gestures.” Dan gives him a look. “Besides, this was made by the best baker in the city. I made sure of it.”

Of this, Taiga has no doubt. He resigns himself to a piece of cake with his coffee, accepting the plate and the fork with no arguments. The cake itself is not too sweet, not too much sugar on his tongue, and he breathes a soft sigh of relief. It makes a good companion for his coffee, all in all, and it wouldn’t be above Dan to specifically choose cake he would like having with his coffee. It appears he and Hiiro had coordinated this very well together.

“It’s good,” he finally admits, the corner of his lips quirking at the way Dan beams at him, a smudge of whipped topping smeared at the corner of his mouth. “Thank you. Really.”

Hiiro clears his throat, stretches out a hand to lay it on top of Taiga’s. “Dan and I were talking about something, actually. We wanted to bring it up to you.”

There is nothing inherently worrisome in his voice when he speaks, but Taiga frowns just the same, setting his fork down, deciding he will think about finishing the cake after he hears his husbands out. Balancing out a relationship as complex as theirs can be means that they often have to have long conversations, weigh the pros and cons of everything to make sure the three of them are happy. Being three instead of two means a third person whose thoughts and feelings matter just as much and deserve just as much care and consideration. For someone who often shoved his own feelings about things into the back of his mind, it’s been an eye-opening experience to realize just how much it takes to make their relationship function healthily.

“Emu told me you and Kiriya were talking about kids,” Hiiro begins, and Taiga blinks at him. Isn’t sure where this is going. “Parad wants more. Kiriya said you wanted more, too.”

“Oh.” Taiga’s mouth is dry. He hadn’t thought that conversation would… “I, ah, might’ve said that.”

Dan scoffs at him. “Of course you did. Kiriya doesn’t go around spreading lies about people.”

“You never said anything to the two of us about having more children. I wouldn’t have thought it was something you wanted, given how much Nico can tire the three of us out.” Hiiro’s smile is soft, achingly fond as he says the words. “But you do. You said as much to him.”

Taiga isn’t used to being put on the spot like this, squirming slightly in his seat, but he doesn’t pull his hand away from Hiiro’s. “I… Yeah. I thought… Nico’d be a great big sister, you know.”

The silence in the room would be uncomfortable if it was anyone else having this conversation with him. Admittedly, talking to Kiriya about it had been awkward and difficult for him, his throat closing up around his deepest wishes and desires. Yes, he wants more children. Yes, he wants Nico to be a big sister. But asking that of Dan and Hiiro is so much.

“The pregnancy was hard on you, y’know,” Taiga finally says, his eyes slanting to where Dan sits, wiping frosting from his lips with a napkin, prim and proper. “You still handled it better than we all expected, but it exhausted you. I know. I gave you the daily massages three and four times daily.”

Dan meets his eyes fearlessly, propping his chin up on his hands. “I’m well aware,” he says, “and I’m also well aware I would go through all of that again for our little girl.”

At this, Taiga swallows roughly. He finds himself picking out Dan’s features in his daughter’s face when he plays with her, picking out his own as well. He and Hiiro had never had Nico tested— never saw the need, they would love her no matter whose genetics she carried— but at four there are already some definitive traits she shares with Taiga. He can’t unsee them.

She has his strength, too, his resiliency. Taiga sees that in her far too often, the recognition that something may be difficult, may seem like an impossible obstacle to overcome, until she  _ does _ it, and then it’s worth it, well worth it. He knows who she gets it from too easily.

“I wish you’d brought this up to us sooner,” Hiiro finally says, stroking his thumb over Taiga’s knuckles in a slow, soothing rhythm. “Dan and I have been talking about it since Emu told us.”

“Have you been?” The thought is a strange one, that the two of them had known about the one desire he’s kept all to himself, and he had never known they knew it. Had never had cause to think that, not even once. “Well, I, um… I suppose I should ask you what consensus you came to about the subject. Having another child is a big step for all of us.”

“We also asked Nico if she wanted another baby in the house,” Dan adds.

Taiga squeezes his eyes shut. “I’m surprised she didn’t tattle on you then and there.”

“I took her out for ice cream if she kept it secret.” Hiiro chuckles. “She likes the idea.”

“And so do we.” Dan is quiet for a moment; Taiga looks at him. “I want another baby, too.”

The softness in his voice, in his face, is enough for Taiga to think better of finishing his cake. Instead, he pushes himself up from the table so he can pull Dan to his feet, wrapping him up in his arms, just to hold him for a moment. And Dan melts against him, fingers clutching at his back, tangling in his shirt, and something in his chest tightens at the sensation.

Hiiro stands off to the side, looking confused for just a moment, before Taiga holds an arm out to him, and then he smiles gratefully and joins their little kitchen afternoon huddle.

Taiga has two arms, one for each of them. He wraps one around Dan’s waist, lets Dan snuggle up against his chest, head tucked beneath his chin, and he thinks about how Dan’s belly had been between them, but it had never stopped them from finding a way to embrace just the same. And the other arm curls around Hiiro’s shoulders, letting him lean in, letting him be soft, letting him take off the emotionless and downright cold mask he still defaults to in public. Letting him be soft and relieved and loved for just a moment.

There are people who would have looked at them at this moment and not understand what Taiga gets from this, from being their pillar, from being the person they come to… But he’d been alone for so long, alone and desperate for something, for anything. Not just for love and affection but trust, the kind of people who would let him in, and not be afraid, and not shy away from him. And knowing that he has them, and being reminded of him, is a better birthday gift than any cake.

Dan leans back to smirk up at him. “Why don’t we try to give you a newly conceived baby for your birthday?” he asks, and Taiga swoops him up off of the floor, Hiiro leading the way back upstairs.

Maybe the sheets will still be warm.


End file.
